Recently having visited this topic again, I was tickled to see what a hot button this subject is for ALL of us!
It reminded me that in the mid-late 1990s I bought LOTS of embellishments for quilts....
silk ribbon
wired ribbon
round beads/oblong beads/metal beads/glass beads/this-and-that-kind-of-bead
"eyelash" threads
decorative yarns
leather appliques
silk for specialty appliques
fancy buttons (and this started a thankfully short-lived antique button collection craze for me)
"lost its mate" ear rings with stones, beads, mosaics, etc.
decorative tatted laces
antique laces
French laces
small folded-fabric flower shapes
I made TWO quilts using this embellishment stuff - one went to a friend, one is a UFO nearly 20 years old - and haven't pulled the box out again except to add to it!! What's with that???!
Keep saying I'll make a crazy quilt someday with lots of handwork.......but for WHAT??
I'm having surgery on both hands now because I can hardly use them any more; I'll be 70 in January; what makes me think I'll live long enough to use a tenth of the stuff up?!!
LOL! Sometimes I think I'll be on "Hoarders" if my daughter sees all this quilting stuff neatly stashed away!
Jan in VA